The Minecraft Experiment, day 25: D: D: D: D:

When I first started playing Minecraft a few months ago, I played with a rule: if I die, I have to delete the entire world. Now I'm trying to get to hell and back. The diary starts here , and we're up to the 25th.

I'm trying to follow my compass home, but I seem to have surfaced from a spelunking trip in the dead of night, on the most monster-infested coastline I've ever seen in the game.

World 10, deaths 9

I could turn back - it's not far to my hole. But since I made almost no progress home yesterday, I ought to press on through the night. It'll probably be OK - they're just skeletons, they have a hard time hitting you if you're moving.

I skirt around them and try to head homeward, but the route takes me worryingly close to the gloomy forest. Soon there's a thwuck! and I'm being shot from the dark. I can't see anything in there, but I also can't stop to place torches without being hit. Thinking about it, I do know of a way to create a lot of light over a large area with very little effort - I could just start another forest fire.

I snag a leaf with my flint and steel as I scamper by, and soon the whole coastline is ablaze. I lose the skeleton easily, but just as I'm leaving the safe glow of the forest inferno, its light lets me glimpse what's ahead.

D:

It's a Creeper. Those I'm still scared of. I double back, immediately hit a burning tree and singe myself. I head left, jump over a small ridge and into a pond below.

D:

Shit! I scramble to get out of the water, but the Creeper gets me before I can get a purchase on the bank. The blast knocks off a chunk of health, but I'm alive. The beach is still crawling with zombies, so I turn back to the burning forest.

D:

Some men just want to watch the world burn. Some Creepers just want to watch those men, creepily, from a forest.

Beach it is.

There is a Creeper here, but luckily he's not looking my w-

D:

RUN. Run, and think about how that's going to help. Creepers are almost exactly as fast as me, and when I hit the water and slow down, the Skeletons that roam the coast will be able to hit me with their arrows.

None are in range right now, and the Creeper is a little way back, so I have a few seconds. Quick, what's the recipe for a boat? I think it's a V-shape of wood?

D:

Damn it, no, it's planks not wood. Why do I have so little wood? Wait, that's not normal wood it's some kind of hard wood I've picked up. I still have loads of normal wood. Build build build!

D:

Dammit, I've made a bowl! This is far too small to set sail in! Boats are a U shape of planks, not a V! More planks! More planks!

D:

A boat! Chuck it in the water! GET IN GET IN GET IN. I'm in, I'm looking furiously in the opposite direction of the Creeper, and I'm holding the forward key much, much harder than I need to. I have no idea how close it is, but by what feels like the skin of my teeth I make my spectacular getaway.